A few weeks ago, when it was still warm enough to wear shorts and a tee shirt I headed up to my mess of a community garden to start harvesting the vegetable equivalent of a surprise party.
The potatoes.
Potatoes are unlike any other vegetable in that you have NO idea what you have until you dig them up. Root vegetables in general are a bit of a mystery, but with beets, carrots, turnips or just about anything else you can see the top of the vegetable growing out of the dirt so you generally know what it is you'll be pulling out.
The potatoes on the other hand are a complete surprise. It's what makes them the fun vegetable. Well that and their willingness to be up for pretty much anything. Bake? Fry? Scallop? Mash? Roast? YEAH! I'm a POTATO!!! I'm down with it all!
The odd time you'll come across a less than cooperative potato that decides it's had enough of hanging out with you. It lets you know of it's wish to liberate itself from your custody by self destructing into a liquidy pile of foul smelling goo.
As I was saying, I went up to my community garden to dig up my regular potatoes a few weeks ago. I grew them 2 different ways this year with a few side experiments.
I grew them in containers, and I grew them in regular, slightly raised beds.
The raised beds are a HUGE pain to dig up. I tried using my U Bar but the spaces between the tines were too big and didn't bring up any actual potatoes. It did do a good job of loosening the soil though.
The thing about digging up potatoes is you're gonna cut them in half if you use a shovel. But ... I used a shovel. It's the only way to get all of them up. Unless your soil is so loose that you can just pull the whole potato plant up, you're going to have to sacrifice some potatoes. If they're big enough and you injure or cut them in half all you have to do is let them scab over and they'll be fine.
They won't last as long in storage as an unharmed potato, so just use the ones that you mutilated first.
I also experimented with not hilling some of my potatoes. When you read about growing potatoes the first thing you inevitably read is that you have to "hill" them. So as they grow you keep adding soil or straw around them to allow more potatoes to grow presumably. I've always hilled. This year ... I took a chance on a few areas and didn't hill just to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I got the exact same potato production whether I religiously hilled the plants with straw or not.
My raised beds produced a LOT of potatoes. One might describe it as an insane amount for a single gal to be growing but you never know when you're going to have to make a 64 pound gnocchi. You just don't know.
I got around 50 pounds of potatoes from my 8' x 4' plot, planting one seed potato per square foot. Not a huge return but way more potatoes than I'll ever need. And yet. I couldn't leave it at just that when I was planting in the spring. I had to plant another 4 smaller beds of potatoes.
Plus a few pots of them.
Because of that whole possible gnocchi thing.
Compared to the potted potatoes the raised bed plants were a huge success.
Granted, harvesting potatoes from pots is way easier because all you have to do is dump the pot out and pick out your potatoes. At least that's what the Internet would have you believe. In reality a pot big enough to grow potatoes in is quite heavy when it's filled with soil believe it or not. One can't pick it up and dump it out so much as lean, push, swear and cry over it before finally relenting and digging the soil out by hand.
Once you dig a bunch of the dirt out by hand the pot will be light enough to tip over providing you have a very large grunt in you.
For me the planters didn't yield a very big harvest. About half of what a regular planting would have. It could have been because I had 3 plants per pot which was too much for such a small space, or it could be because potatoes like to be cool and plants in pots are always hotter than plants in the ground.
If you only have space for a container of potatoes then it's a great way to go. But if you have the space and garden to grow them in the ground that's what I'd tell you to do.
I had a few beds dedicated to potatoes and 3 big pots in which I grew Kennebecs, Russets, Banana Fingerlings, Chieftains and Peruvian Purple potatoes, which as it turns out are about the healthiest thing in the world you could eat if you're looking to fight cancer.
In total I dedicated 61 square feet to my potato; my love. I got 100 pounds of potatoes from it.
This is what 100 pounds of potatoes looks like.
Come spring, I'll show you what a person who has eaten 100 pounds of potatoes looks like. I suspect the only difference between that and the above photo will be the lumpy bumps will be accompanied by a big smile.
I saw this technique online somewhere, and it seemed interesting. You take the potato you wish to plant, and make a hole in the side of it. You thread your tomato plant through it, and then plant it deeply, with the tater on it's side. Supposedly when you pull your tomato plants up in the fall - BOOM potato crop in the same spot. For those tater experts - I have never grown taters, would this actually work?
Read "The Martian" first, then go see the movie. Of course, the book is much more detailed and funny, but the movie is fairly true to the book. But hearing the music he has to listen to on Mars is better than reading it.
I know how protective you are with your potatoes Karen...that is an awesome harvest...enjoy eating them this cold Winter when we are eating crappy spuds from the store...
thanks for linking that gnocchi post! I missed it, and you made it so plain and less intimidating to try
Can I come live with you? I LOVE potatoes! There is no way that I don't like them.. I'll bring my Remoska cooker, it makes amazing baked potatoes.
You've inspired me to give it a try next spring. I want to grow okra next spring too!
So the big question is: Have you seen The Martian? Also a great book. That guy has some serious potato growing skills. It's amazing how much gardening you can fit into a space movie if you try.
I haven't but I can't WAIT to see it. I didn't even realize it was a book. Maybe I should read it instead of watch it. Reading it's always better. But maybe I'll watch it. You've really throw a wrench into my day here Briony. ~ karen!
It is a very good movie and worth going to a theatre to see it in 3D. Some movies you can wait and get the dvd free from the library but others need the really BIG screen. This is one of them. Karen, if you go to Silvercity on the east mountain (that's local-speak) you can choose and reserve your sear(s) in advance and on-line and then just waltz in like you own the place.
Doh . . . that should be "reserve your seat(s)" not "sear(s)" . . .
I read the book and saw the movie in 3D, and I highly suggest you read the book before you see the movie, if you can. There are several (important, I thought) parts left out of the movie and I found the book to be quite a bit more emotional. The movie is good, though!
...kay....was hoping someone would have already asked this question....I consulted the google, but didn't find anything. What's a U Bar?
I konw I know! It's a wide, big fork looking thing used for harvesting. Karen is using it in one of her pictures. I believe they can be purchased from Lee Valley.
LOL. It's actually a big wide thing that's used for cultivating soil. It's not really meant for digging things up. It's great for loosening soil in the spring after it's become compact. Here I am using it this spring. It's also called a broadfork. Which is ironic because most broads aren't big enough to use it. ~ karen!
Super helpful information!! Thank you!
Going to try the purple ones next year! Your harvest is wonderful-thanks for the great photos! What a lot of work though! My hero!
Your potatoes are beautiful Karen! We have not gotten a good potato harvest in two years.....not sure what is going on. I'm envious of your gorge potatoes!
Ahhh Ha!!!!Thank you for posting your results! My husband and I have had this debate going for a couple of years now since someone told him you can grow potatoes in a composter. We do raised beds and as much as he loves the gardens, he was a city kid without a clue. I am the gardener. He is the tour guide when people come over! I have grown Yukon gold and russets the past 4 years. Yes I avoid hilling too. I get great results but now handy husband has bought a used solarium off of kijii to convert into a greenhouse. He is very talented on stuff like that. Unfortunately it will go up right where the potatoes go! So hubby thinks composter growing is going to be the option. I am quietly searching the yard for a new potato patch. We live in town on a corner so it's going to have to look pretty and be functional. A border of marigolds and purslane it is. Thanks to your published results I have no faith in the composter method now. However...we know I will have to try at least one to prove my point to him. You probably already knew this but dumping extra bags of playground sand in your potato patch and carrots makes harvesting so much easier. The dirt literally falls away from the vegetables. Your posts are my morning highlight with coffee...anything we can learn to do ourselves, the better. You Karen.. are an awesome teacher!
Good luck Andrea! I think moving the potatoes is an OK. trade for a greenhouse! ~ karen
Very cool! Congrats on your 100 lb. harvest. I by accident have grown sweet potatoes only because I planted a sweet potato vines in containers. The potatoes were mammoth in size.
ah, the potato harvest, yours is astonishing, it's a great inspiration to give it a go for real next time around.
mine was cut short, because i... uhm, kinda forgot about them. i used purple ones in small containers like in your first picture and Russian fingerlings in a huge trash barrel.
it was a pitiful sight really: me getting the notion to dig em all up at night with a flashlight and my bare hands cause they looked just about dead. dirt flying everywhere, manic cackle if I happened upon one lonesome sput. cars started slowing down, many heads were scratched….
i was happy with the purple nurples, I made an amazing salad with chickpeas, leeks, green onions and tons of dill with em. that’s really all I got out of them, one meal.
the fingerlings didn't make it sadly, quite disappointing to get a handful of m&m sized tatters from a 32 gallon bucket.
but who’s to blame but me and my forgetfulness. in my defense, it was my first ever attempt to grow em.
which I owe of course, to you, dear.
Well now that you see what can happen I expect you to pay attention to your potatoes next year. I'll be checking up on you! Glad you gave it a shot this year. You're officially a member of the spud club. ~ karen!
*snapstoattention* yes ma'am, thank you ma'am, it's a great honor *paraderest* you shall not be dissapointed *brisknod*
:0B
Yeah, I'll just send hubby to Whole Foods to get the purple spuds. Hopefully they will have them, because I haven't seen them in the regular grocery stores; you know, the ones that don't have a loans officer at the entrance. This spud farmin' sounds like waaaay too much work. The only way I might consider growing them is if I can get ahold of one of those amazing hybrids that grows tomatoes on top, and taters below the soil. No joke - these apparently exist, since both plants are part of the same family. In fact, that is your mission for next year, Karen: get some of these plants and grow them. If you can get a harvest out of them, and eating it doesn't turn you into a mutant zombie, then I will give them a go.